Subject: Masking for the asking and then some-antics ! From: Punita Singh <pgsingh(at)HOTMAIL.COM> Date: Tue, 6 Jul 1999 09:07:07 PDTHey there List, So "masking" in the ASA definition defines both the process and the amount. Both a verb and a noun. I think that conveys the MEANING of masking pretty well, if y'know what I mean. Oops I used "mean" both as a noun and a verb. That was mean. (Oops, now it's an adjective as well). Verb to noun transformation is one of the fun features of the English language that in fact "makes English English" (Stephen Pinker in "The language instinct"). I wrote an article about this for the popular press some years ago (The Telegraph, Calcutta, May 1996). I can snail mail it to anyone for the ASKING. On receiving my MAILING, you will have a better UNDERSTANDING of the many ways in which verbs can be nouned, sometimes in a cross-lingual context as well ! The gerund route of a verb to a noun (the ING thing) is pretty routine as should be evident if you can get a good READING of the WRITING on the wall (not the Berlin wall, the FALLING of which was a TOUCHING event, leading to the OPENING of borders). If a person has some amount of RINGING in their ears, they may also have a problem with their HEARING. It may take a lot of TESTING to verify the FUNCTIONING of the system. OK -- enough PLAYING. Got to get back to working on the WORKING of the auditory system. Hope this missive will not elicit too much MOANING and GROANING ! --- Pun ita P.S: By the way, the terms "swamping" and "masking" themselves are examples of the reverse process of making verbs from nouns. Want to get into some antics about that ? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Dr. Punita G. Singh, Sound Sense, 20-A Aurangzeb Road, New Delhi 110011, India Tel: (91-11) 379-2328, 301-4068 Fax: (91-11) 301-8743 E-mail: pgsingh(at)hotmail.com ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com